Hi all, I've been reading through a very interesting paper:
http://www.jstor.org/cgi-bin/jstor/printpage/00030554/di961007/96p0002q/0.pdf?[EMAIL PROTECTED]/01cc99331a00503f125f&backcontext=results&config=jstor&dowhat=Acrobat&0.pdf "The Two-party System and Duverger's Law: An Essay on the History of Political Science" American Political Science Review, 76 (December, 1982), pp. 753-766. (Note: this link is only accessible on universities with JSTOR access) The main point of this paper is to discuss the history of Duverger's Law, which is explained here: http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Duverger%27s_Law At any rate, he goes into some detail on the distinction between "Duverger's Law" and "Duverger's Hypothesis". The "law" states that plurality voting leads to the two-party system. The "hypothesis" states that majority voting and proportional representation favor multiparty systems. The latter is a dubious claim that Duverger himself was much less sure of. As it turns out, there's been research to back up the idea that Duverger's hypothesis is false. Specifically, it points out that IRV (referred to as Hare voting), has lead to the reduction of parties in Ireland. To quote: "Finally, Ireland provides a devastating counterexample. Despite the use of the Hare system, its parties have decreased sharply in number since a high point in 1927, when there were seven parties plus fourteen independents. In 1969 there were three parties, one of them very small and one independent. This result was substantially reproduced in 1973 and in 1977, when one party obtained an absoute majority of the votes. Not unreasonably, one student of Irish elections who seemed to accept Duverger's hypothesis (O'Leary, 1961), has now specifically rejected it (O'Leary 1979, pp. 112-13). " The references Riker makes are to these two entries: O'Leary, C. 1961. /The Irish Republic and its experiment with proportional representation/. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press. O'Leary, C. 1979. /Irish elections 1918-77: parties, voters and proportional representation/. New York: St. Martin's Press. I'm still reading though this, but this jumped out of the page at me given the recent conversation regarding Australia's use of IRV, and questions about whether IRV still reinforces the two-party system. There's evidence to suggest that it does. Rob ---- Rob Lanphier [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eskimo.com/~robla
